My friend David Smeeton, who has died of cancer aged 83, was a brilliant and pioneering BBC reporter from 1962 to 1994.
He was the BBC’s first Tokyo correspondent from 1973 to 1978. As part of this assignment in Japan he covered stories in China, North Korea, the Philippines and south-east Asia. David later became the BBC’s correspondent in Bonn, West Germany, from 1981 to 1986.
He memorably covered Margaret Thatcher’s visit in October 1982 to the Berlin Wall, which she described as a gross monument to a cruel and desolate creed. In 1986 David returned to Britain as the west of England correspondent based in Plymouth.
He was born in Gillingham, Kent, the only son of Mona (nee Brockman), a school matron, and Donald Smeeton. His father, a naval officer, was killed in the second world war while serving on HMS Glorious.
One of David’s grandfathers was a rear-admiral and two uncles were vice-admirals. He was fortunate to emerge unscathed from the German bombing in 1940 of Devonport dockyard, Plymouth, where David, his mother and sister, Jane, lived with his grandparents during the second world war years. After an education at Malvern college, he joined the Western Morning News in the city as a reporter before becoming a regional reporter for BBC South West.
In 1965, he was promoted to BBC News London as an education reporter then education correspondent. There followed a period as home affairs correspondent before he went to Tokyo.
Throughout his time with the BBC David could be described as an old-fashioned professional who always met his deadlines, researched thoroughly, made copious notes and was determined to get the story right. Speaking to camera or into a microphone he was word perfect, with clear diction, his smiling face topped by a mass of crinkly hair.
In 1959 David married Diana Pitts. Their son, Jonathan, died in 1987 in a climbing accident in Glencoe, Scotland. Thirteen years later they decided to move to Western Australia to be closer to their daughter, Rachel, and grandchildren. Diana died in 2014.
In latter years, David used his rich BBC voice to spellbind local audiences in the city of Mandurah with histories of settlements by Indigenous Australians and later Europeans. He spoke at length, including verse recited from memory. He was also involved in the palliative care movement in Western Australia, helping people think about what they want for themselves in old age.
David is survived by his partner, Sheila Twine, Rachel, two grandchildren, Jo and Matt, and Jane.
